After making one of the most notorious live news gaffes ever, Julie Etchingham is no stranger to hair-raising moments.

Caught on mic making a joke about David Cameron's immigration policy, she might have feared banishment to a shopping channel.

Instead Julie will be joining veteran newscaster Sir Trevor McDonald on News at Ten tonight, taking it in turns to read out the headlines between Big Ben's chimes.

She says: "Doing it for the first time in rehearsal was a nervetingling moment.

"When the theme tune played, it made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck."

As we meet on the eve of the big relaunch, the usually ice-cool blonde is clearly excited and nervous at the prospect of fronting the flagship bulletin back in its old slot.

After six years at Sky following almost a decade at the BBC, Julie is already a familiar face as she makes her ITV debut.

Most viewers though will remember her as the anchor who made last year's funny on-screen blunder when she was loudly heard to say that David Cameron's policy on immigration really came down to "extermination".

The comment, made into a live microphone she thought was turned off as Cameron made a speech last October, was hugely embarrassing for the presenter.

Speaking for the first time about the gaffe, Julie, 38, admits she still hasn't quite lived it down.

She says: "It was just such a stupid thing to happen. I've had a hair shirt on for quite a long time about it.

"It was a joke, I absolutely didn't mean any harm by it. It was just one of those excruciating moments. In most walks of life your mistakes aren't quite as public as that. I've learned my lesson."

Luckily, the incident didn't deter ITV bosses from wanting to hire Julie to sit alongside Sir Trevor. Her mixture of experience, gravitas and polished good looks was said to have impressed ITV chairman Michael Grade, who personally requested Julie as the co-anchor.

Although flattered to be courted, Julie initially considered turning them down. "I was approached a few months ago, when they asked if I'd be interested in coming over to ITV News and at that stage I didn't know what the job was.

"I said I was very happy at Sky News. Then they told me it was News at Ten and that it would be with Trevor. I thought I'd be insane not to go for it."

As a child growing up in Leicester, Julie always knew that journalism was the career for her.

All her life she's suffered from insomnia, and during those long sleepless nights the teenage Julie would listen to the World Service on the radio in bed and dream of the day she would become a presenter.

She still wakes regularly at 3am, compensating with holiday "sleep binges" and practising yoga, after doctors were unable to help.

The insomnia was at its worst 14 years ago when Julie became a BBC graduate trainee in London.

She says: "I was desperate for some sleep and spoke to a doctor. But they're so careful about prescribing sleeping tablets.

"They just gave me three or four so I could sleep that week.

I took them on a couple of nights but they left me feeling a bit woozy.

"The time I go to bed varies between 10 and 11 o'clock but I'll be wide wake by 3am."

As a mum of two young sons, aged two and five, Julie admits she finds it hard to juggle work, home life and a lack of sleep.

She says: "It gets tricky when a big story happens and you just get sent there.

But I'm fortunate that my husband is brilliant about knowing when that phone rings, I've got to go.

"It happened one Boxing Day with the tsunami, it was Christmas and we had a child's birthday in the mix, but that's what I do for a living."

The trend for using "autocuties" to read the news rather than experienced journalists has been criticised by the likes of John Humphrys, the presenter of BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

But Julie, who has an English degree from Cambridge, earned her stripes reporting from the scene of some of the biggest stories of the past decade.

She started out on TV fronting regional show Midlands Today, which was followed by a move to London where she joined Newsround, and met husband Nick Gardener, 44.

Awarded an Emmy for a report on Bosnian children, she then did stints at BBC Breakfast News and News 24 before moving to Sky in 2002.

Her highlights there included interviews with Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton, and she was the first female presenter of an election night programme.

Dispatched to Thailand after the tsunami, she was also sent to the Old Bailey for the Soham murder trial and to Beslan for the school siege.

"I think it's important to have some experience as a reporter," she says. "I took a decision quite early on that I didn't want to just go into a studio and stay there."

Since becoming a newsreader, things have settled down and Julie likes to spend as much time as possible with her children. "When you go into presenting, most of the time it's reasonably regular. I'm lucky, I've got a fantastic nanny who is my rock, frankly, alongside my husband. There are working mothers who have to juggle far harder things than this."

The New At Ten team is hoping for a busy news day to make the first show go with a swing. It may also have a big scoop but, understandably, she refuses to say what it might be.

Julie and Sir Trevor will co-host the programme from Monday to Thursday at 10pm, Julie will then be joined by Mark Austin at 11pm on Friday to co-host a later bulletin and then Mark will anchor the weekend shows.

It's the first time News at Ten has been properly pitched against the BBC's established Ten O'Clock News with Huw Edwards and the entire TV news industry is on tenterhooks waiting to see where viewers will go.

No one will put a figure on the ratings being hoped for, but as Trevor put it last week: "We're not in this to lose."

Julie says: "We're going to go head to head with the BBC but we want to deliver something different. The presenters have a big role but it's the content that really matters.

We're aiming for warmth and with two of us in the studio there'll be interaction."

Of course, the traditional And Finally will help to differentiate the programme from the more serious BBC agenda. She says. "The news can be tough sometimes. And Finally is there to give a different take on life."

And how does she feel about working with Sir Trevor, who, before his retirement, was regularly voted the nation's favourite newsreader?

"It's a fantastic opportunity for me to learn from someone so experienced," she says. "The programme has a great reputation, I just hope I can bring something to the party."